Kummuh: The Ancient City of the Kommagene Kingdom

Before the reign of Roman Empire, unfortunately, there is no good amount of written source that reached the present day. Even if we don’t have a great idea about the borders of this glorious kingdom; we can say it was located or even larger than the border in between the Taurus Mountains and the Euphrates.

The Geographer Strabo mentions the Kommagene Kingdom as a pretty large forest surrounded, rich for its water sources and fertile soil. We can also add the rich iron sources and gallnut trees used for painting as well.

The name of the Kommagene Kingdom was seen as “Kummuh” on Assyrian tablets written in Old Assyrian language for trade exchanges. Both at those trade contracts and taxes they paid, we can see the definitions of cedarwood, silver, gold, domesticated animals and wine.

Kummuh city, founded in between 11th to 10th-century B.C. conquered by Assyrians back in 700’s B.C. and the name was not seen again until 500 years later as a political group in Hellenistic Era. Being one of the most important cities till Late Hittite Era, Kummuh was in borders of the Kommagene Kingdom ruled by Ptolemaios who was highly respected by the royalty of Kommagene. The name Kummuh was another version of Samsat (Samosata) which was the capital city of the Kommagene Kingdom of which borders laid till Syria.